Hellboy: Blood and Iron Advance Review

Is Hellboy's second animated outing as entertaining as the first?

By Dan Iverson

Updated: 13 May 2012 11:55 pm

Posted: 15 Mar 2007 10:18 pm

We here at IGN TV enjoyed Hellboy's first venture into the animated realm (Hellboy: Sword of Storms), so we were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the second animated film: Hellboy: Blood and Iron. With the quality of the first film coupled with the fact that Guillermo del Toro and others involved in the production of the films insisted that Blood and Iron was the better of the two movies, we couldn't wait to see what all the hype was about. After viewing the film, let us assure you that the film is in fact better than the first, and well worth your time.

Fans of Hellboy know the story already, but for those of you that need a crash course here it is: Hellboy is a demon that was summoned by the Nazis to help take over the world, but with the help of the Allied Forces and Professor Trevor "Broom" Bruttenholm Hellboy was rescued and taken in by the American government. The government agency that brought Hellboy is know as the B.P.R.D. (the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense), a group assembled to take care of ghosts, ghouls and everything else that goes bump in the night. With time Hellboy has grown up from a child to a young adult who is considered the "World's Greatest Paranormal Investigator." Traveling with the B.P.R.D. and his close companions (Abe Sapien and Liz Sherman), Hellboy has made it his life's goal to avoid his "destiny" of destruction and fight against the supernatural threats which intend to harm our world.

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In Blood and Iron, Hellboy and B.P.R.D.'s finest are recruited by Professor Broom to help stop the resurrection of an evil female vampire, Erzsebet Ondrusko (fans of history can compare Erzsebet to Countess Erzs¿bet B¿thory). What Broom hasn't told Hellboy, Abe, and Liz is that he was the one who killed Erzsebet sixty years ago, and that all the supernatural surroundings in this New York town had happened before. But dealing with the mysterious backstory of the city is only one of the problems Hellboy has ahead of him, as besides Erzsebet we find ghosts, phantom wolves, witches, harpies, a werewolf and the Queen of Witches, the goddess Hecate, all waiting for him.

Even though the focus of the film is on the supernatural fiends plotting destruction, it is the bond between the characters which is a big draw to the story. While it is never overtly thrown in your face, it is still obvious that the B.P.R.D. is like a family to our heroes. With Broom as the father figure and Hellboy, Liz, and Abe as his children, we get interesting relationships with all of these characters. Whether it is the whole group discussing where they found the best pastries on the planet or small scenes between Liz and Abe, family can be considered one of the main themes of the story. The main focus of this theme of family lies with Hellboy and Broom. Starting the film with the signature story recap we watch as Broom takes in Hellboy, and nurtures him into a great detective. This dynamic helps give a happy ending to the film, which is needed after the dark setting and story of the film.

While Hellboy: Sword of Storms focused on the theme of Japanese mythology, Blood and Iron takes a darker approach which suits the series better. With plenty of blood, death and evil mythological monsters spread across Blood and Iron's story, it seems as if the film is more in touch with Mignola's comics. Always dark and bleak, with a sarcastic edge, the comics are filled with sinister fun which was only really capitalized on a couple times in the first film (i.e., the floating heads and the graveyard), but here in the second film we find the horror theme throughout the whole story. From Broom's flashback fighting Erzsebet to Hellboy's final fight with a goddess, Blood and Iron never lets up on the tension - as it seems that anybody could die at any point. We appreciated the fact this film used Mignola's dark style, as it really helped set a great mood and ambiance for the film.

The excellent music composed by Christopher Drake helps increase the gothic and ominous setting for the film. Drake did a great job with Sword of Storms, and Blood and Iron is no different. Much like the first film, Drake takes the sounds and instruments needed, and compiles a soundtrack which helps set the mood with synthesized orchestration. Perfectly blending strings with organs, there is a very gothic feel to the music which helps give credence to the locale in the given scenes. We also need to commend Drake for his piano work; while it isn't technically amazing, it sets the perfect creepy mood for its characters.